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COUNCIL is selling its “hard-line” approach and low rate increases as part of the draft budget for the 2014-15 financial year.
And for the first time, information sessions have been introduced on nominated dates at which the community can ask questions of council about the budget.
Council officers and councillors lauded the budget’s relatively minor rate increase of just three per cent at the ordinary meeting of council on Tuesday night.
It is predicted the three per cent rate rise will be one of the lowest across the state, with early figures from other municipalities indicating a five or six per cent increase in contrast.
Draft predictions for Mildura Rural City Council suggest a 4.5 per cent increase, while the Northern Grampians Shire Council has proposed a five per cent rise.
Residents living in the irrigated farming area near Robinvale will experience the most rate increase in the municipality because their area has experienced the greatest residential growth.
“That’s up and around the farming properties in Robinvale, the smaller irrigated farming blocks where there’s been a lot of movement and increases in value in the last 12 months,” Swan Hill Rural City Council director of corporate services David Lenton said.
“Their rates are going to go up by more than three per cent. Some will pay less than three per cent.”
The low increase is due to a major organisational restructure within council, with at least eight jobs cut from the third tier of management.
“We’ve worked really hard to get this rate rise as low as we can,” council CEO Dean Miller said.
“The organisational restructure has kept our rates at five per cent below what they would have been.”
In what has been called an “ambitious” capital works program, $16 million has been allocated to major projects across the municipality, or roughly 25 per cent of council’s budget.
Mayor Les McPhee said the draft budget showed a focus by the council on a “hard-line approach”, investing in council’s core responsibilities of roads, playgrounds, drainage and investment in community projects.
For the full story, pick up a copy of Friday’s Guardian newspaper (June 13).
